Mac Power User Alert: The Folder Tool With Power

Mac power users come in many shapes, sizes, and experience levels. One thing we have in common is an inherent desire to find better ways to do what we do on our Macs.

Here’s my Friday Mac Power User Alert: FolderGlance. If you dream of easier, better, faster, cooler ways to do this or that on your Mac, FolderGlance is a file and folder dream utility come true.

Need For Speed And Power

It’s not for Mac power users, but OS X’s Dock serves a simple and powerful purpose as a built-in utility.

At a glance you can see what apps are open, and you’re a click away from opening what’s not.

It’s basic, yes, but that’s powerful, especially for the average, everyday, vanilla-flavored Mac user.

What if you’re into more powerful utilities? What if you have a need to burrow deep within your Mac’s file and folder structure? For the average Mac user, that means lots of clicks.

To do the same burrowing with less effort, more efficiency, more control, and plenty of options, power utilities rule the day.

Glance At FolderGlance

If the Mac is the most personal of all personal computers on the planet, it’s because the Mac lets us do what we want, the way we want it. A vanilla Mac works just fine. A customized Mac is a finely tuned machine capable of efficient and productive performance beyond that of mortal man.

FolderGlance is the kind of Mac plugin you’d like to see Apple plug in to Mac OS X. Soon.

As the name implies, FolderGlance lets you see what’s inside your Mac’s folders without opening the folder. It installs as a PreferencePane which works in the Finder.

FolderGlance lets you control-click (vanilla Mac users) or right-click (hungry Mac users) on a folder to see the contents. So, click on a folder. Right click. Get a list of what’s inside the folder.

What if there are more folders inside the folder you clicked? A traditional pop up hierarchical folder list is displayed, and you can move to each folder and display the contents.

Glance At The Power Features

Once you’ve tried FolderGlance for even a few minutes you can figure out why power users rave over such tools. Drill down an unlimited (there are probably limits to how many folders you can view in a hierarchy) number of folders.

But wait. There’s more. FolderGlance lets you add custom folders to the right-click or control-click contextual menu. The end result is a launcher that works with a single click to open whatever you open frequently.

There’s even a setting to allow for control-click free or right-click free pop ups of the contextual menu. You can move, copy and make aliases from within the contextual menu. Many files can even be previewed, ala Quick Look.

Some Mac files can be opened by multiple apps, and FolderGlance’s contextual menu lets you select which app to open which document. Some Mac files are actually Packages which you can’t view in the Finder without a few extra clicks. FolderGlance lets you peer inside Packages.

Even hidden folders and files can be displayed using FolderGlance. This is one power tool for Mac users than vanilla Mac users will adapt to right away. The caveat? It’s pricey, but oh so effective. (Hint: For a limited time today, FolderGlance is available as one of The MacBundles; 12 apps for $50). That makes extra power an absolute bargain.